The Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX: CUV) share price is on the move today after the company released its results for the September quarter to the ASX this morning. CUV shares closed at $31.12 yesterday and opened lower at $31.03 this morning before rising as high as $31.94 during morning trade. They have since pulled back again to $31.00 at time of writing.
Clinuvel is a $1.54 billion pharmaceuticals company whose flagship product is SCENESSE – a market-leading treatment for the rare but debilitating metabolic disorder erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP). The primary symptom of EPP is hypersensitivity and intolerance to light.
CUV shares spiked to over $45 earlier this month after the company received US FDA (Food & Drug Administration) approval to sell SCENESSE in the United States, but have since settled to the levels we see today.
What did Clinuvel report this morning?
The company has reported cash receipts of $9.782 million for the quarter ending September 30, which includes net cash from operating activities increasing by $5.39 million.
Cash and cash equivalents increased by $4.07 million to $58.34 million, despite the company paying out a cash dividend worth $1.22 million (or 2.5 cents per share).
The company notes that demand for SCENESSE is typically higher in the Northern Hemisphere summer months, as the winter period typically results in less sunlight.
The quarter also saw increased expenditures on production and manufacturing costs as the company scales to "meet the clinical demand for SCENESSE" – contributing to a 2% increase in spending on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
Clinuvel's Chief Financial Officer Darren Keamy had this to say of the results:
The Company will continue to be most disciplined in the approach to its cash flow management as it nears the northern hemisphere winter months and taking into account that following the 8 October approval of SCENESSE by the US Food and Drug Administration, the Company will progress its implementation of the distribution plan to bring the treatment to EPP patients in North America.
